''Zone One'' is a 2011 novel by American author

Colson Whitehead Arch Colson Chipp Whitehead (born November 6, 1969) is an American novelist. He is the author of eight novels, including his 1999 debut work '' The Intuitionist''; '' The Underground Railroad'' (2016), for which he won the 2016 National Book Awa ...

. Blending elements of

genre fiction Genre fiction, also known as popular fiction, is a term used in the book-trade for fictional works written with the intent of fitting into a specific literary genre, in order to appeal to readers and fans already familiar with that genre. A num ...

and

literary fiction Literary fiction, mainstream fiction, non-genre fiction or serious fiction is a label that, in the book trade, refers to market novels that do not fit neatly into an established genre (see genre fiction); or, otherwise, refers to novels that are ch ...

, the novel takes place in a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...

United States ravaged by

zombies A zombie (Haitian French: , ht, zonbi) is a mythological undead corporeal revenant created through the reanimation of a corpse. Zombies are most commonly found in horror and fantasy genre works. The term comes from Haitian folklore, in whic ...

. Whitehead has stated that the novel was partly an attempt to return to his adolescent fascination with horror writer

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

and science fiction icon

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

Plot summary

A virus has laid waste to civilization, turning the infected into flesh-eating and mortally contagious zombies. But events have stabilized, and the rebuilding process has begun. Over a three-day span, "Mark Spitz" and his fellow "sweepers"—other survivors of the apocalypse—patrol portions of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, eliminating zombies as part of a mission to make the city habitable once again. Flashbacks pepper the narrative, explaining how Mark Spitz survived the apocalypse to date and got his nickname along the way.

Critical reception

Reviewing ''Zone One'' for ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'', Tom Chiarella wrote that "Whitehead brilliantly reformulates an old-hat genre to ask the epidemic question of a teetering history—the question about the possibility of survival" and called the book "one of the best books of the year." While Chiarella's review establishes the high-water mark of praise heaped on the book, most critics were similarly impressed.

Glen Duncan Glen Duncan is a British author born in 1965 in Bolton, Lancashire, England to an Anglo-Indian family. He studied philosophy and literature at the universities of Lancaster and Exeter. In 1990 Duncan moved to London, where he worked as a boo ...

, who likened the pairing of genre and literary fiction to "an intellectual dating a porn star," concluded that ''Zone One'' "is a cool, thoughtful and, for all its ludic violence, strangely tender novel, a celebration of modernity and a pre-emptive wake for its demise." Charlie Jane Anders observed, "this is one zombie story that nobody's ever told before," and opined, "the book pays off marvelously." Duncan and Anders both had criticisms of the novel, however. Duncan, took issue with the prose, writing, " ylistically the novel takes a while to settle," but that when it does, "Whitehead writes with economy, texture and punch." Anders wondered if the heavy, unpredictable, and sometimes indiscernible use of flashbacks represented a deliberate attempt "to deny the reader any feeling of narrative satisfaction, through denseness and obfuscation." The novel was a ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' bestseller.

References

2011 American novels Novels by Colson Whitehead Novels set in New York City Doubleday (publisher) books American zombie novels Harvill Secker books {{2010s-horror-novel-stub